Watery Wearable Art

The current challenge at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog is to create some wearable art. As soon as I saw the theme, I had an idea. I had an image in my head of the effect I wanted to create with this project and I'm pleased to say that it came out pretty much exactly as I imagined:

I've had this rectangular pendant (from Crafty Individuals) sitting around for ages and it was perfect for what I wanted to do with this project. It comes with a bevelled glass insert but I decided to use UTEE instead to fill the frame. My idea was to use my Smushallaum mermaid stamp and create a sort of underwater scene - so I cut a piece of card to fit in the frame and made a shimmery, watery background using Dylusions spray inks. I stamped the Smushallaum image onto card and painted her with more Dylusions spray inks before cutting her out and attaching to the background. This was glued into the tray, and then came the really fun part! I started adding layers of UTEE, sprinkling in some fine peacock-coloured glitter as it melted, for that added underwater shimmer. I also added a couple of green gem "bubbles" into the UTEE here and there. I kept going until the tray was filled and then left it to cool.

I love how this looks! I think it has the shimmery, slightly distorted underwater feel that I was going for and I love how the gems encased in the UTEE catch the light in different ways as you turn the piece. Photos really don't do justice to how it shimmers and catches the light as it moves. I am so pleased with this that I'm wearing it as I type! :) I think I may make some more pendants using UTEE in this way, it's a really effective technique.

The Stampotique Designers Challenge is also holding a Guest Designer call - I luuuurve Stampotique stamps so am entering this piece for the GD call as well.. I hope they like it as much as I do! :)

Sneak peek revealed

I almost forgot about this. I posted a sneak peek a couple of weeks ago... I couldn't reveal all on here initially as I was sending the finished items to a friend who might read my blog. But she has since received them and it's safe for me to post the pics up here. :)

I made these for my friend as she is having a bit of a scary time health-wise and was going in for an operation so I wanted to send my best wishes and cheer her up a bit.

So I sent a card:

For this card I had a play arond with the stamping with bleach technique featured in a recent issue of Craft Stamper magazine. I used Distress Stains on white card and then stamped this gorgeous Indigo Blu design in bleach onto the inked card and used a paintbrush dipped in bleach around the edges. I hand-stitched a border, matted it onto some pink glitter card and added some layered flowers with a button centre (and a dab of Rock Candy Stickles on the petals of the smaller flower and a little sentiment stamp cut into a pennant shape.

I also made her a funky, grungy-style necklace, with an (I hope) life-affirming sentiment:

I used a lot of Tim Holtz Ideo-ology stuff to make this necklace; the frame, the key, the foliage flowers and leaves, all of them coloured here and there with alcohol inks. The face I made from FIMO using a rather funky push mold I recently aquired. I used a bit of Perfect Pearls to give the "skin" a bit of colour and sheen and painted on some details before sealing with a couple of coats of clear varnish. You can't really see it from the front but I filled in the aperture in the frame with seed beads and Glossy Accents (partly to give a more solid base to glue the face onto) and I used more Glossy Accents to add some seed beads to the face to help frame it a little. The chain, jump rings and fastener I bought from a local beading/jewellery findings shop. :)